A Poem Based on Joshua Harris’s I Kissed Dating Goodbye, by Joshua C. Frank The Society May 21, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 23 Comments . Chelsea a true story from I Kissed Dating Goodbye by Joshua Harris “Behold not everybody's beauty: and tarry not among women.” ---Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) 42:12 That long-skirt, apple-pie brunette from...
‘AI’s Promise’ and Other Poetry by Daniel Kemper The Society May 20, 2024 Culture, Poetry 24 Comments . AI's Promise What is the latest ingenious ability makers have made out as mental agility? Smoothly unveiling the newest utility, __though it effusively services whims, it reveals our fragility __more than...
‘He Lied About His Age’: A Poem by Joyce E. Rogers The Society May 18, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 9 Comments . He Lied About His Age 'Twas May of nineteen seventeen, our country now at war. Will had decided to enlist, this great world to explore. His lifetime numbered sixteen years, he'd lie about his age, His build...
‘Saturn’: A Poem by Alan Orsborn The Society May 17, 2024 Culture, Poetry, Villanelle 14 Comments . Saturn "When we have shuffled off this mortal coil" —Shakespeare "According to medieval thought, the worst planet was Saturn, sponsor of death, destruction, darkness, and disaster." —Michael Ward When...
A Poem for the 30th Anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide, by Paul A. Freeman The Society May 17, 2024 Culture, Poetry 27 Comments . Rwanda, April 1994 Inside Nyamata Church the pews are piledwith clothes, the blood that drenched them dull and dry.What demon turned sane men and women wildwith bloodlust that ten thousand here would die? A...
‘Herman the Cripple’: A Poem by Margaret Coats The Society May 16, 2024 Culture, Music, Poetry 44 Comments . Herman the Cripple A body helpless in deformity Was mine, though loving parents carried me Full seven years in sick infirmity, Then placed me in the monks’ academy. Their island abbey Reichenau became My...
‘The Dead’: A Poem by Jeffrey Essmann The Society May 15, 2024 Culture, Poetry 12 Comments . The Dead They’re pretty but the dopamine Has hollowed out their pale blue eyes. They sit there, staring, silent, numb, (They only need to move their thumb…) Intent upon the tiny screen. There’s no...
‘And Yet We Wash Our Hands’: A Poem by Roy E. Peterson The Society May 14, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 25 Comments . And Yet We Wash Our Hands When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, butthat instead an uproar was starting, he took waterand washed his hands in front of the crowd. “I aminnocent of this man’s...
‘Look Homeward, Sweet Afton’: Poem by Brian Yapko, Set to Music by Jeff Eardley The Society May 14, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Music, Poetry, Song Lyrics 32 Comments . Music by Jeff Eardley . Look Homeward, Sweet Afton after Robert Burns Look homeward, Sweet Afton, back to thy green braes, Recalling with pride Britain’s glorious days. Then forward flow strongly, I pray...
A Poem on D.C.’s S.W.A.M.P., by Warren Bonham The Society May 11, 2024 Culture, Poetry 13 Comments . S.W.A.M.P. Soulless, Warped, And Monstrous People look at us as smelly “sheeple.” Easily manipulated. Otherwise, we’re mocked and hated. Those revolting, loathsome creatures, all have normal-looking...
‘Hookerville School’: A Poem on the One-Room Schoolhouse by Phil S. Rogers The Society May 11, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 13 Comments . Hookerville School Built just before the Civil War, employed till twenty-nine, This one-room school that stands today withstood the test of time. Turn back the clocks to times long passed, so many years...
‘Orpheus’: A Poem by James Sale The Society May 10, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 29 Comments . Orpheus We want the heroes back so we can learn: Herakles smashed his way to hell and stormed By violence the ferryman and three-faced dog; Even yanked Theseus from his deep-rooted seat Without a...
’10/7/2023′: A Poem on the Attack on Israel, by Michael Vanyukov The Society May 10, 2024 Culture, Poetry 24 Comments . 10/7/2023 More than one has risen up against us to destroy us. Rather, in every generation they rise against us to annihilate us. —The Passover Haggadah The world is killing Jews, again. There are too...
A Poem on Scotland’s New Hate Crime Law, by Cheryl Corey The Society May 8, 2024 Culture, Poetry 47 Comments . On Scotland Police were inundated with over 7,000 calls in the first week following the passage of Scotland’s Hate Crime and Public Order Act last month. Where tartan, tweed, and Highland Games began: The...
‘Truth Is Not Beauty’ and Other Poetry by Joshua C. Frank The Society May 5, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Villanelle 31 Comments . Truth Is Not Beauty “What is the worst mistake you ever made in bed?” Reply: “My son.” (Actual dialogue on social media) I learn the truth; I’m more and more aggrieved. There’s nothing left, no...
‘Bridgerton’s DEI vs. Historicity’: A Poem by Drilon Bajrami The Society May 3, 2024 Culture, Poetry, Reviews 20 Comments . Bridgerton’s DEI vs. Historicity They sacrifice true historicity, So DEI trumps authenticity. But Bridgerton and Netflix, they don’t care, Because those ethopaths with neon hair Give fat cats in their...
‘Reservoir’: A Poem by Stephen M. Dickey The Society May 2, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 18 Comments . Reservoir Those who can still see through accreting years Are getting scarce, those who can lift such veil To remember when the Corps of Engineers Dammed a minor river to end its tale Of flood and misery...
‘Carmen’: A Poem by Théophile Gautier, Translated by Bruce Phenix The Society May 2, 2024 Culture, Poetry, Translation 13 Comments . Carmen by Théophile Gautier (1811-1872) translated by Bruce Phenix Carmen is thin—a dark-brown line Of bistre rings her gipsy eye. Her black hair bodes a dark design, The Devil gave her skin its...
‘Easter Evening Appearance’ and Other Poetry by Jeffrey Essmann The Society May 1, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Ekphrastic, Poetry 8 Comments . Easter Evening Appearance Luke 24 Sealed up within my upper room, Absorbed by morbid discontent And fear, I questioned everything I’ve done and wondered what it meant. Though slim perspective chided me And...
May Songs from Miracle Plays, Translated by Margaret Coats The Society May 1, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry, Song Lyrics, Translation 19 Comments . May Songs . I. Where does loyalty take its rest? Where is charity’s portraiture, Except in you, sweet virgin pure? Where has virginity possessed The honor due its high allure? Where does loyalty take its...
‘Throughout American Academies’: A Poem by Bruce Dale Wise The Society April 29, 2024 Culture, Poetry 9 Comments . Throughout American Academies One hears throughout American academies a strainthat is at once belligerent, intolerant, and strange.It drips with antisemitism all across the land.What new “Mein Kampf” is...
A Poem on Being Openly Jewish in London: ‘Lie Low, Jew!’ by Susan Jarvis Bryant The Society April 29, 2024 Culture, Poetry 41 Comments . Lie Low, Jew! Echoes and Irony The Hamas flags are raised on London streets By swarms that seethe with scorn and blaze with hate. This nasty nod to History’s evil greets A Londoner reminded of the...
‘How Many Wrongs Make a Right?’ and Other Poetry by Warren Bonham The Society April 28, 2024 Culture, Poetry 19 Comments . How Many Wrongs Make a Right? The left rights wrongs by doing wrong, but wrongs so fixed don’t stay fixed long. When things re-break, they wrong once more, and hope thereby they can restore things back to...
A Poem on Anti-Israel Encampments at U.S. Universities, by Cheryl Corey The Society April 28, 2024 Culture, Poetry 23 Comments . On Student Protestations They protest on behalf of Gaza from afar— Why won’t they do the same regarding Myanmar? To speak of Falun Gong and China’s Muslim Uyghur Will get you vacant stares—the...
‘Jerzy and Cyla’ and Other Holocaust Poetry by Peter Austin The Society April 27, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 10 Comments . Jerzy and Cyla Jerzy, a Polish teen in World War Two, Arrested for suspected membership Of the resistance, faced a one-way trip To Auschwitz. There, where womenfolk were few, Labouring in a storehouse used...
‘The Knight of Monticello’: A Poem on Thomas Jefferson by Mary Jane Myers The Society April 25, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 16 Comments . The Knight of Monticello Everywhere and always, Jefferson read. His library stocked a sage’s daily bread. Four volumes, leather-bound, well-thumbed, perused: Don Quixote, his most peculiar muse. He...
‘Theópneustos’: A Poem by Peter Venable The Society April 25, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 7 Comments . . Theópneustos Greek, “God breathed” . The Word of God is absolute— __Or else, some claim, it’s obsolete. Many hold it in disrepute, __Dismiss it as myth and deceit. . I say it’s for the...
A Poem on China’s Belt and Road Initiative, by Paul A. Freeman The Society April 24, 2024 Culture, Human Rights in China, Poetry 16 Comments . When the Dragon Spreads Its Wings Millennia, the Dragon stayed at home, Consumed its own, kept dissidence at bay, Until it felt a gnawing urge to roam, To make its global domination play. With Belt and...
‘Exodus’: A Poem for Passover by Michael Vanyukov The Society April 22, 2024 Culture, Poetry 28 Comments . Exodus "The entire community of the children of Israel complained against Moses and against Aaron in the desert. The children of Israel said to them, If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land...
Are Epic Heroes Toxic?—Classical Poets Live with Andrew Benson Brown The Society April 21, 2024 Classical Poets Live, Culture, Essays, Poetry, Reviews 11 Comments . https://youtu.be/ICEvMGx4WnY . . Andrew Benson Brown has had poems and reviews published in a few journals. His epic-in-progress, Legends of Liberty, will chronicle the major events of the American...
‘Rolling the Roads—The Days Before Snow Plows’: A Poem by Phil S. Rogers The Society April 20, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 13 Comments . Rolling the Roads The Days Before Snow Plows . A major storm throughout the night __Of heavy, wet, spring snow. Nor'easter off the coast of Maine __Hence wicked winds did blow. When finally the storm was...
Carpe Diem: A Poem by James A. Tweedie The Society April 19, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 15 Comments . Carpe Diem Carpe diem quam minimum credula postero. (“Seize the day, trust as little as possible in tomorrow.”) Horace, Odes I:11 We live our lives, we make our plans, and then Both time and...
‘The Sound of Dirt’: A Poem by Gigi Ryan The Society April 18, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 26 Comments . The Sound of Dirt in memory of my granddaughter, Valerie (March 30, 2020 - April 20, 2020) Above uneven chairs a canopy Protects the mourners from the blazing heat. It does not shield from view the pile...
‘Snowy Egret’ and ‘Dusky Seaside Sparrow’: Two Bird Poems by Margaret Coats The Society April 17, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 37 Comments . Snowy Egret Here where sunlight sparkle rinses Cypresses whose balding branches Shoulder epiphytic orchids (Cowhorn, spider, ghost, or scented), Tangled mangrove swamp condenses Fortress walls against surf...
A Poem on the Persecution of Donald J. Trump, by Brian Yapko The Society April 16, 2024 Culture, Poetry 43 Comments . . On the Altar of Our Nation I must confess it took a long, long time For Donald Trump to grow on me. He’s gruff, Undiplomatic, calls opponents slime And scum. Of course the man is right, but...
‘Gallows Lane’ and Other Poetry by Cheryl Corey The Society April 15, 2024 Culture, Poetry 16 Comments . Gallows Lane A lesser charge once meant the pillory, With head and wrists securely set in blocks; For just the legs and feet, a pair of stocks; Or stripped and strapped against the whipping tree, Then...
‘A Clock Describes People’: A Poem by David Whippman The Society April 13, 2024 Culture, Poetry 28 Comments . A Clock Describes People Their faces do not show the time of day But something called emotion: what that is, I've no idea; but I can tell you this: they worry as the hours slip away. “Time's a great...
‘Counsel from a Self-Help Guru’ and Other Poetry by C.B. Anderson The Society April 12, 2024 Culture, Poetry, Satire 21 Comments . Counsel from a Self-Help Guru I haven’t come here purposed with defendingYour excesses or manifold omissions,Or promise all of you a happy ending:I’m here to explicate a few conditions That bear on...
‘Lone Musketeer’: A Poem by James Sale The Society April 11, 2024 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 25 Comments . Lone Musketeer "To be a poet in a destitute time means: to attend, singing, to the trace of the fugitive gods. This is why the poet in the time of the world’s night utters the holy … Poetry is a place...
‘How to Build a Monster’ and Other Poetry by Brian Yapko The Society April 9, 2024 Culture, Poetry, Satire 34 Comments . How to Build a Monster Don’t bother digging corpses up to suture body parts; Don’t seek out full-moon werewolves or unstake vampiric hearts--- For monsters can be crafted much more easily of late: First,...